The Standard (St. Catharines, Ontario) Canada
September 14, 2005 Wednesday
Final Edition
Aram I to visit Niagara
by: Don Fraser, The Standard
The highest ranking figure in the Armenian Apostolic Church will pay
a rare visit to Niagara next month.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos will visit Canada from Sept. 22 to
Oct. 5.
While his Ontario schedule hasn’t yet been finalized, Aram is
scheduled to visit the region Oct. 4, said Rafi Istanboulian,
president of the parish council of the St. Paul Armenian Apostolic
Church of St. Catharines.
This is at least the second time the head of the church has come to
Niagara, said Istanboulian. The last visit was in the late 1960s.
“That’s why it is a big event for our community,” he said, adding
there are about 1,050 Armenians in Niagara. “We do know he will will
be visiting St. Catharines, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls.”
There are a number of anniversaries that Aram I will be marking while
in Canada, according to a recent release from the Armenian Prelacy of
Canada, the governing religious body in this country.
That includes the 1,600th anniversary of the Armenian alphabet, and
the 75th anniversary of the Catholicosate Seminary in Lebanon, which
is a focal point for training Armenian religious leaders.
It is also the 10th year that Aram I has been ordinated as Catholicos
(leader) of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, the equivalent of
the Vatican and located in Lebanon.